WEST BRATTLEBORO — This winter, Western Avenue (Route 9) off of Interstate 91 Exit 2 has been in abominable shape. Despite the best efforts of the Brattleboro Department of Public Works to keep ahead of new potholes through patching, both new-timers and old-timers in town say this is the worst shape they have ever seen the road.
Traffic has slowed to a crawl as everyone tries to avoid flat tires or damage to their undercarriages. Drivers bob and weave like prizefighters, hopefully not into the fists of oncoming traffic. (Of just the drivers the DPW has heard from, department head Steve Barrett reports well over 20 blown tires.) This focus on the decrepit road condition distracts drivers from watching for bicyclists and pedestrians.
On the morning of Feb. 21, a State Police car had to be towed away. If police vehicles are disabled, rendering them unable to respond to a call, this becomes even more of a dangerous situation.
And this road is our gateway to southern Vermont, one of our prime skiing and tourist destinations?
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This stretch of Western Avenue was resurfaced (and paid for) by the state not quite 10 years ago. Listed recently on the Vermont Agency of Transportation's Pavement Condition Map as “very poor,” it has gotten considerably worse this winter. Greatly exacerbating conditions is the large increase in heavy truck traffic since the weight limits were raised during the last several years.
While I have personally been one of the victims, I have hardly been alone. The evening before my flat tire, Selectboard member Kate O'Connor had one. And immediately after mine, a poor woman followed me with two blown tires at once!
It is also widely known that the road really needs to be rebuilt, not just repaved, because of the old, narrower concrete roadway under laying it. Repaving it, while a short-term fix, is only putting a bandage on the sore. The state spends its resources to repave it and within a few short years needs to do so again.
VTrans, when contacted this winter for help and a possible solution, recommended that the town spend $200,000 of its own funds to repave this section of road, which would be a three-year fix. The road is not scheduled for repaving by the state until sometime after 2020. Thank you, state!
With a total budget of $250,000 for repaving, this would leave $50,000 for the other almost 50 miles of paved roads in town!
Route 9 is, of course, a state-owned road. When Brattleboro accepted responsibility a number of years ago for maintenance of this stretch from High Street to Edward Heights, it clearly must not have understood that it would be left high and dry (or low and patched), as it has been today.
But maybe what makes the most sense is taking the little remaining blacktop out, returning it to a dirt road and supplying tourists and locals with horses and buggies for slow, nostalgic trips to the ski areas or just to the store.
When will the state wake up and accept how important this road is? Can targeted state or federal funding help Vermont move faster on this?